The yarn and project are for Oktoberfest socks! (Follow the link to see, I don’t want to borrow pictures without asking.)

This was the Perfect Birthday Present for my father, whose birthday always falls near the beginning of our local Oktoberfest celebration, who is German/Irish, and who loves beer!
Now I had every intention of showing you an FO (does one sock count as an FO? In my book, yes!) But as it is, I have only a WIP, and not much of one at that:

(My foot, not the recipient’s, hence a little big.)

You know, besides my eternal optimism, life interfered; for example, I had people over at my house this week, which necessitated hours of cleaning, which could have been spent knitting.

And I restarted the sock three times; once because I goofed up, next time after I realized the recipient’s foot was not as big as I thought it was. Third time was a charm.

And then I was e-conversing with the Tsock Tsarina, the designer of the sock, and mentioned that I was going to try to find a less lacey but still barley-cornish pattern stitch to replace the barley eyelet, since the recipient wasn’t an eyelet kinda guy. She returned with a brand new stitch pattern that she invented specifically! It looks great (well, the stitch does, my execution and photography may be a little lacking. You try doing a close-up of a sock that’s on your foot! Oh, wait; some of you have!) ; )

And this is the first short row heel I have been completely, utterly happy with (no holes!)

and it looks like grains of barley, too

which was the designer’s idea, I am certain. I have learned a number of things from this project, besides the un-holey short row heel, and I will pass them all on for your knitting enlightenment when I have an FO (or two!) to share.

Well, the last reason I don’t have an FO to show, or even much more of a WIP, is that not long ago I was putting dishes away, having just washed my hands, and a heavy bowl slipped out of my hands as I was putting it away. It apparently rebounded as it broke and sliced my knuckle fairly nicely. Fortunately, it just missed the tendon. I definitely need both hands to knit and to do what I do at work! And because I was busy holding pressure on the laceration, I couldn’t even take my knitting to the ER!! Talk about frustrating!

Before and after (I’ll spare you hand pictures):

The people in the ER were all very nice and quite efficient, considering, though (and I know the doctor who sewed me up), so I am all put back together with minimal restrictions. But the Manly Barleycorn (working title only!) stitch pattern requires some tension on the needles to do, and it was causing my cut to be unhappy in several ways, so I am going to stick to easy-peasy no-needle-manipulation-required for a few days, I guess; to whit, this:

I seem to be starting a tradition of not-quite-finished presents for my father, whose birthday it is today! A year or two ago, it was a cardigan which took a seemingly inordinate amount of time to finish. It was meant as a birthday present, then ended up as a post-holiday present. Then I had to take it back and re-do part of it to make it fit better. It would probably also help if I could stop being impelled to alter any pattern I come across. . . . there is a certain amount of frogging inherent in that approach.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Dad!

But my father is leaving today for a two-week trip to Spain and Portugal with friends, lucky retired guy, so after making him try on the WIP for a fit check (useful *before* finishing the rest of the foot and the other sock!), I now have a couple weeks to finish it. Good thing, too, being somewhat knitting-impaired currently.

Hope your weekend was less eventful than mine! Or at least in a different way!

Hey, a few years ago it was snow on the parade, so rain is not so bad! (I can say that, of course, I wasn’t out in it. Though I did send my children with warm clothes and raincoats and an umbrella, despite the fact that the forecaster had apparently not recently glanced at the radar and kept denying the possibility of rain. Moms know these things. Or at least can read a radar image, eh?)

8 responses to “I am the Color of….”

So sorry about your hand (and the bowl – it looks like it was a nice mixing bowl)! Best wishes for speedy and uneventful healing.

The sock yarn is really gorgeous – what is it? It looks like it has some silk in it, but that might just be a mental leap from thinking it looks like corn silk.. *smile* And I’ve never liked short-row heels, either, so I’m intrigued to know what tricks you learned on this one.

And what did you tease us with..? That berry-colored something looks really scrumptious.

Hey, in all that discussion about the socks and the stitch and the non-eyelet-ishness of your father, somehow we managed to escape realizing that he shares a birthday with mine. Happy birthday to both of them!

Your WIP looks great – beautiful short-rowing, and I must say I’m really happy with the way the new stitch looks in the proper color; way better than it did in my quickie green swatch, I think. (BTW speaking of color, can’t remember whether we ever talked about the “color of wheat, the color of corn” line – it’s from “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” with which my family was intimately involved from, indeed long before, its inception.)

Re your hand, ACK! I’m just glad it wasn’t worse. Jennifer just went through something similar and clearly it’s no joke. Here’s hoping you’ll be back in knitting form soon.